FARM-YARD MANURE. 



FARM- YARD MANURE. 



calcareous earth and gypsum, and but little 

 alumina or silica. "Different specimens of 

 peat, that I have burnt," says Davy, "from the 

 granitic and schistose soils of different parts 

 of these islands, have always given ashes 

 principally silicious and aluminous; and a 

 specimen of peat from the county of Antrim 

 gave ashes which afforded very nearly the 

 same constituents as the great basaltic stratum 

 of the county." (Chemistry, p. 192.) In those 

 instances, where the farmer finds such excel- 

 lent results from dressing young clover with a 

 mixture of peat and compost, as noticed by 

 Mr. Dixon, with the Lancashire peat, it may 

 be reasonably concluded to contain gypsum; 

 (Jonrn. Eng. Jlgr. Soc. vol. i. p. 138) ; and, if it 

 requires the addition of a portion of lime, 

 before it is found to promote very decidedly 

 the growth of clover, it then is very likely to 

 be saturated with sulphate of iron. 



The too general neglect of peat as a mixture 

 with farm-yard dung is not owing to its being 

 a very modern discovery, for it was publicly 

 recommended in England nearly half a cen- 

 tury since. " In Sweden, as in other countries," 

 says the Baron de Schulz, when writing to Sir 

 John Sinclair in 1796, " farmers have endea- 

 voured to increase the quantity of manure by 

 mixtures of all kinds of vegetables and soils, 

 and by collecting urine in cow-houses well 

 adapted for that purpose ; they likewise, in 

 some parts of the country, lay below their cat- 

 tle soil from the shores of the lakes, leaves, 

 moss, saw-dust, chopped alder, and pitch fir, 

 brushwood, reeds, and straw. They often now 

 place their dunghills on a slope instead of the 

 former hollow, and by means of pumps, water 

 them with urine and dung-water. Many farm- 

 ers, however, still prefer the fresh dung to that 

 which is fermented, and which they suppose 

 has lost in the process a great part of its vege- 

 tating power." (Com. Board of dgr. b. i. p. 326.) 



On the sea-shore, it is usual for the farmers 

 to mix sea-weed with their dung ; in Essex 

 they mix it with chalk ; in Suffolk, with a pe- 

 culiar red shelly sand or marl ; and in the west 

 of England, with the calcareous sand of the 

 sea-shore ; a practice which is thus described 

 by Edward Bennet : 



" The quantity of sand which a barge usu- 

 ally contains is about 90 horse teams of 2$ cwt. 

 each ; the price varies according to the distance 

 it is carried up the rivers Notter and Tamar, 

 from 18s. to 25s., and 3s. drinking money, or 

 three gallons of cider. It is dragged for in 

 Plymouth sound in three to six fathom water. 

 In summer the barges frequently run on the 

 sand bank in Whitsand Bay at two hours be- 

 fore low water; when the tide leaves them, 

 they load, waiting for the flood to bring them 

 off. For arable land, the sand. is thought to be 

 best mixed with old earth, or manure collected 

 in roads ; but for pasture it is best mixed with 

 stable muck; the proportion is two teams of 

 muck to one of sand; a barge load thus mixed 

 is thought to be good manure for an acre." 

 (dnnals of dgr. vol. xii. p. 35.) 



Farm-yard dung is usually employed in all 

 experiments upon manures, as the basis upon i 

 which comparative results are most usually ' 

 obtained ; and it is not often that any substance 



can be found to exceed it in fertilizing effects. 

 It was compared with salt, lime, and oil-cake, 

 by Mr. George Sinclair, most of whose elabo- 

 rate experiments are given under the head 

 SALT. In my own experiments with potatoes 

 in a light gravelly soil, I found that when the 

 soil simply produced 120 bushels per acre, 

 that manured with 20 tons of stable dung it 

 yielded 219 bushels; and with 20 bushels of 

 salt only 192 bushels. (My Ensny on Suit, p. 

 84). In those of my brother, Mr. George John- 

 son, where 20 tons per acre of stable dung 

 produced 23 tons of carrots, 20 bushels of salt 

 applied to a similar space produced 18 tons 

 (Ibid. p. 146); and, with the same proportions, 

 when the salted soil produced 4$ tons of red 

 beet- root, the spit manure yielded 6 A tons. 

 (Ibid. p. 149.) In those of the Rev. E~. Cart- 

 wright upon potatoes, when the soil simply 

 produced 157 bushels per acre, the same quan- 

 tity of land when dressed with 



363 bushels of fresh dung, yielded 192 bushels. 



30 soot 192 



60 wood ashes 187 



60 malt dust 18i 



363 decayed leaves 175 



363 peat 159 



363 Haw-dust 155 



(Com. Board of Agr. vol. iv. p. 370.) 



Some valuable experiments on farm-yard 

 dung, compared in various proportions with 

 other manures, applied to potatoes and oats, 

 were made by Arthur Young, of which the fol- 

 lowing was the result : 



"In the last week in March, 1787," he says, 

 "the white champion potato was planted in 

 beds, each containing a square perch of a good 

 sandy loam, on a wet clay marie bottom, the 

 sets being planted one foot apart. 



"At the same time, and on the same ground, 

 12 square perches were planted with the same 

 potatoes, and manured as described in the fol- 

 lowing table, which also gives their respective 

 products. 



463 



